


Help Me Make it Through the Night

by srmiller



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Mild Angst, warning for mention of drug abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-04
Updated: 2015-05-04
Packaged: 2018-03-28 23:46:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3874399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/srmiller/pseuds/srmiller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Annie misses a meeting with Frankie and knowing her like he does Jeff finds Annie hiding out in a storage closet but is surprised by the blue pills she keeps in her backpack and Jeff gets a hard reminder that for an addict, the fight is never over</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help Me Make it Through the Night

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first attempt at writing for the Community fandom, so i appreciate any help in getting the characterization right for these characters

Jeff was already holding his cell phone in his hand when it vibrated so he saw immediately that Frankie was calling him, which was weird because she knew he was in class and she didn’t seem like the kind of person who would intentionally disrupt the learning process but since he was happy to have any reason to ditch class he stood up and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

“What’s up?”

“Sorry to bother you, I know you’re teaching.”

“Not today, pop quiz. What did you need.”

“It, uh, it’s not me,” she managed to get out and Jeff felt a small worm of worry move around in his gut.

“Frankie?”

“Annie was supposed to meet me for a follow up about committee business but she didn’t show.”

“Have you tried calling her?” he suggested but his sarcasm seemed to go over her head.

“Multiple times, it just goes straight to her voicemail. Her car is still here but no one’s seen her since her last class an hour ago.”

Jeff quickly went through possible scenarios, Annie had just gotten her six month tune up last week so it wasn’t car problems, Abed had sent out a text earlier that day saying he was doing something...Abed-ish and wouldn’t be available until the meeting later so he hadn’t picked up Annie to do something. Britta was doing her psych research and he was beginning to realize he knew entirely too much about his friends’ lives.

And it left him with only one conclusion which would explain Annie’s mysterious disappearance and more importantly why she would miss out a meeting.

Jeff turned on his heels, opened the door to his classroom and waited till he had the attention of the 20 or so students before speaking, “Hey, once you’re done with the quiz you can leave. Whoever collects the quizzes and puts them on my desk gets extra credit.”

On the other end of the phone he heard Frankie’s confusion, “Jeff? I don’t think-“

“I’m pretty sure I know where she’s going to be,” he told her as he moved down the halls. “I’ll text you when I know she’s okay.”

“Okay, good. I feel kind of stupid for worrying, but it just didn’t seem like Annie to not let me know she wouldn’t be able to make our meeting.”

“No, you made the right call,” he assured her but he was too distracted to put much effort into sounding sincere. “Thanks.”

He hung up the phone and stuck it in his back pocket and finally found his way to the storage closest where Annie had once found him a few years ago after she’d publicly embarrassed him but when he tried to turn the knob it was locked. With a sigh he dropped his head heavily against the door.

“Annie, open the door or I’ll get Chang to break in for me.”

The door was too heavy for him to hear any movement but after 30 seconds-a long, boring 30 seconds- the door opened and Annie was standing in front of him with a blank expression on her face.

It looked as if all the life had been drained out of her.

Pushing his way into the room he shut the door behind and waited for her to say something but she pressed her lips together with her arms folded across her chest so he stepped forward and reached out to touch her.

“Annie, what’s going on?”

She shrugged his hand off her shoulder and took a few steps away before facing him again, “Nothing’s going on.”

“You missed a meeting with Frankie, your phone is turned off, and you’re hiding in a storage closet,” he pointed out. “There wasn’t another gas leak, was there?”

“No.”

“Okay, then you’re going to have to fill me on what’s going on here because I haven’t learned to read minds since the last time we saw each other.”

When she didn’t say anything he turned back to the turn and locked it.

It didn’t mean anything, it was just a stupid button so she could easily get out if she wanted so it was more of a statement than anything else.

He wasn’t going anywhere until she decided to talk to him and after almost a minute of standing in awkward, loud silence she reached down and picked up her backpack with a huff, pulling open the front pocket before taking out a small plastic bag and tossing it to him.

He barely managed to catch it and when he looked down he saw a handful of small, blue pills. “Annie.”

“Go ahead,” she challenged, a flush coloring her cheeks, anger sparking vividly in her eyes. “Lecture me, tell me I’m being stupid or acting rash or-“

He stuffed the bag in to his pocket and cut off her words with a slice of his hand through the air, “I just want to know one thing-scratch that, make it two things. First, have you taken any? And secondly, why?”

She flinched as if she hadn’t expected soft words and he gave himself a moment to curse her parents and everyone else she’d had in her life when she was young…er.

“No,” she finally answered, but her voice was tight and when he looked down at her hands he could see her knuckles were white over the yellow of her sweater. “I haven’t taken any.”

The tightness in his chest eased and for a second he thought about whether or not he should trust her but, and he wasn’t an expert on high school Adderall addicts, he thought she wouldn’t have given him the pills if she’d already had some.

“Good. And now’s the part you tell me why. Why now all of the sudden?”

She chuckled but it was so without humor it nearly made him cringe, “All of the sudden? You think this hasn’t been a daily thing since I got out of rehab? That every single time we had to study for a midterm or stay up all night to finish a project I didn’t think about how much easier it would be if I’d just taken a pill?”

Her voice snapped like an old rubber band, brittle and tight and he gave himself a moment to curse himself for having just assumed Annie had it under control but it was hard to think she’d ever wavered when she’d always seemed so strong.

Embarrassed, he stuck his hands into his pockets, his fingers curling around the bag and the pills inside it.

“Fair enough. So why now? What happened Annie?”

“It’s just a lot,” she answered and this time he could hear tears in her voice, could see them start to pool in her eyes and when he reached out to—well, he wasn’t sure what he’d planned on doing but it didn’t matter because she put up a hand to keep him at a distance while she composed herself.

“I’m taking 16 credits to try and graduate early,” she told him. “I’ve got so much reading to do, and papers to write, and dioramas to make. I’m running out of space on my day planner and then there’s the committee and even though we’re better off than we were last year there’s still so much to do and my mom’s been calling trying repair our relationship and it’s just a lot right now and I don’t know how much longer I can keep juggling everything.”

“All right,” he replied stepping forward with his hands up. “I’m going to hug you now. Please don’t punch me.”

She huffed out a laugh, a small sound but she looked more like Annie than she had moments ago so Jeff wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her against his chest as she let out a weary sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be,” he told her and felt her flinch beneath his arms. “You should have been the one to call me instead of Frankie.”

He felt her nod against his shirt and he was pretty sure he felt a small damp spot from her tears but he figure he’d let it go this time.

“So what do we do Annie?” he asked with his cheek resting on her head. “Do you want me to take you to a meeting or home or what?”

Her small hands fisted in the fabric of his shirt, “Can we just stay here for a minute?”

“Yeah, of course,” he assured her, tightening his arms around her to let her know he was there and he hoped, somehow, she understood he wasn’t planning on going anywhere as long as she needed him.

He couldn’t find the words to say it out loud so he settled for, “As long as you want.”

 ##############################

Two hours later Jeff sat in his regular spot in the study room and looked around at the rest of the committee and saw each of them, in turn, look at Annie’s empty seat.

It was Abed who pointed it out.

“Where’s Annie? She’s never late. She’s always early with her binder open and marking down what time we arrive.”

Reaching down to the empty seat next to him he picked up a familiar binder and dropped it on the table, “Annie’s taking some time.”

“Some time?” Britta asked, instantly concerned.

“Yes. Some time. She’s got a lot on her plate so for the next couple of weeks I’m going to taking her place here.”

“You can’t be Annie,” Abed pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m with him,” Elroy agreed with a hard nod. “You can't pull off the frilly binder. Also, she’s scarier than you are.”

“Well, you guys are going to have to put up with me,” Jeff informed them. “And no one, I mean NO ONE is to bother Annie about committee stuff until she’s back. Is that clear?”

They all nodded their agreement and once Jeff believed them he opened Annie’s frilly binder and smiled a little at her concise, clean hand writing.

“Okay, first thing we need to talk about is Leonard and his hipsters writing graffiti on the wall outside the cafeteria.”

An hour later they ended the meeting and Jeff could feel the stress in his shoulders and the back of his neck and he briefly considered saying ‘screw it’ and throwing in the towel but as he was putting Annie’s binder back in his bag he got a text.

_Meeting went well. Going to another in the morning. Headed home to sleep and take a bath._

With a smile he didn’t know gave away all of his feelings he texted back, _Add chamomile to the bath. It’ll help. Call me if you need. BTW you have a three day extension on your criminal procedure paper, and a week on your forensics diorama (blood splatter? Really?) Take care of yourself Annie._

It was five minutes later when he was starting his car that he finally got a text back.

_Thank you Jeff…for everything._

_My pleasure, Annie. Anything for you._

And damn if he didn’t mean it.


End file.
